What is This Hypnotherapy You Speak Of?What is a Session Like?

Hypnotherapy is a self-improvement modality which helps people use deep relaxation to gain more access to inner resources for making positive changes. As a hypnotherapist, I guide clients into a natural state of hypnotic relaxation which helps them drift into deeper contact with their subconscious mind and their innate creative intelligence.

I then guide the client to draw on the powerful resources of the deeper subconscious and creative intelligence to apply to achieving goals and bringing more peace and comfort into daily life. During and after each 90 minute to 2-hour session, clients are provided with tools, resources and affirmations to use with their own self hypnosis to be practiced between office sessions.

Clients come to a session with a goal or concern they want to address. I am happy to offer a free consultation to determine whether or not hypnotherapy is possibly a good fit for a given issue or person. My role in each session is that of teacher, guide and coach.

What does hypnosis feel like? Will I lose all control?

My clients describe the hypnosis trance state as extremely relaxing and peaceful. Some say they feel light and floaty, others describe pleasant tingling and others speak a relaxing, heavy, grounded sensation. Everyone says they enjoy the experience and look forward to doing more. Contrary to popular belief, clients hear and remember what is said in a session and remain capable of answering questions and making requests while in trance. Clients remain in control and can come out of trance any time they choose. When sessions are complete and the hypnotic state is over, clients usually feel refreshed, fully alert and intensely energized to make changes they want to make.

I teach clients self hypnosis which enables them to accelerate and continue the progress we attain in our first session. I teach them how to craft and use powerful affirmations and other tools and techniques.

I guide them to gently explore issues they choose to explore in the way and on the timeline they choose to explore them. I guide them to cultivate and channel inner resources such as self love, acceptance, gratitude and creative intelligence and to apply them to create positive shifts.

I coach them to bring their current adult maturity, wisdom and inner resources to outdated beliefs and self-limiting ideas. I coach them to practice self hypnosis with their personalized affirmations and visualizations.

Yeah But How Does Hypnotherapy Work Exactly?

By taking the time to deeply listen to your concerns and to understand the goal you wish to achieve, I am able to create a session for you that is designed to help you reach your goal in the most efficient way possible. Depending on the issue, we may need to work in conjunction with other medical practitioners to help you achieve your goal. For certain medical issues, hypnotherapy must be used in conjunction with medical treatment, never in place of it.

Hypnotherapy includes learning skills to achieve deep relaxation (self hypnosis) and collaborating with a hypnotherapist to explore limiting beliefs and uncomfortable emotions. Uncomfortable feelings, physical discomfort, blocks and issues are approached as the subconscious mind's strategies which once may have served a purpose, but are now out-of-date. The hypnotherapist and client work together to evaluate these issues at their root and then revise, re-frame, transform and update beliefs for a healthier response to the world. Very often, for example, physical pain can be remarkably relieved by shifting the thought processes surrounding the event that caused the pain and the sensation of the pain itself.

Three Examples of How Hypnotherapy Works

(These are very specific to give an idea. All clients and issues are totally unique.)

Sleep

A client who is challenged to fall asleep or stay asleep may discover outdated subconscious beliefs providing a sense of self-protection that is now no longer needed. The client and hypnotherapist collaborate to identify outdated beliefs and replace them with more useful beliefs fulled by other resources allowing for healthier sleep. With time and practice, the client reports sleeping more hours of the night and resting peacefully when not sleeping which leads to much more alertness and comfort during the day.

Headache

The client with a recurring or very intense headache discovers it to be a physical reaction established in the body from a statement an authority figure made during a highly sensitive moment 40 years ago. The moment is discovered, explored and re-framed with all the resources of the current adult self. The client practices self hypnosis daily along with three sessions of hypnotherapy and sees a dramatic decrease in frequency and intensity of headaches.

Eating Choices

The struggle change eating choices despite a wealth of knowledge and desire, may be found to be undermined by unconscious needs and fears. These fears are allowed to come forth and are then reviewed in light of true current circumstances, emotional maturity and resources. In this way, the unconscious fear may be transformed through love, acceptance and an emotionally fueled drive to consistently make better choices. Client practices self hypnosis regularly experiences steady positive changes in body shape and a surprising positive change in her ability to make consistent positive choices around food.

Many beliefs or subconscious patterns are formed because of events that took place before we had our current adult resources and world view to manage them. For instance, when a child is laughed at by classmates or scolded by a teacher for how she reads a poem in front of her fourth grade class, she may form the belief that public speaking is dangerous. This belief may lead to a strong aversion to public speaking which causes feelings of breathlessness, sweaty palms, weak knees, and confusion. Through the hypnotherapy process, involving a variety of techniques and about 3 - 6 sessions, and with the client practicing at least 15 minutes of self hypnosis daily, that discomfort around public speaking may be virtually eliminated.

How Hypnotherapy Has Helped Me Personally

Testimonials are on the way from my grateful clients, in the meantime, here is my own testimonial for the power of hypnotherapy. Below is a small handful of changes I have experienced since beginning my studies as a certified medical support clinical hypnotherapist. These were all done a combination of self hypnosis and hypnotherapy sessions with an IBH hypnotherapist (Thank You, Adrian Rusin!).

Before and after joint surgery on my right shoulder, I kept myself comfortable using self hypnosis - and no prescription painkillers.

I rest much more deeply and fall asleep when I choose.

I focus more while working out and weight training for a more intense workout.

I have relieved all grief from personal losses including the deaths of several close family members.

I had suffered from migraines for years, but I am now able to function normally while experiencing a migraine and am gaining more and more capacity to comfort myself.

I have dramatically increased my ability to draw upon resources such as my higher power/creative intelligence, self love, self-acceptance, courage, self-forgiveness, and serenity.

OK, I have to ask . . . Will you make me cluck-like-a-chicken?

All questions are welcome! I am glad you asked!

No, I cannot "make you cluck like a chicken" like the hypnotist guy seemed to be able to do in the stage hypnosis night club act you saw in college. Since this is the most common joke I hear (which belies the concern about loss of control) please allow me to clear the farmyard air right now. Because no one can be hypnotized against their will (yes, even those stage hypnosis act volunteers were in total control), the client cannot be "made to do" anything he or she does not choose to do. The client is always in control. Hypnotherapy employs hypnosis as a tool for relaxation but other than that it bears no resemblance to the night club acts.

What does it mean to be "certified" by The International Board of Hypnotherapy?

For me to be a Fellow in good standing with IBH, I am held to the IBH Code of Ethics, I receive extensive continuing education, and I have passed required written, oral and practical evaluations. I am also required to conduct sessions in specific ways designed to bring the highest quality hypnotherapy possible to my clients.

What exactly IS hypnotherapy?

The definition of Hypnotherapy as provided by the IBH: Hypnotherapy is an educational and self-improvement process that facilitates access to internal resources that assist people in solving problems, increasing motivation, or altering behavior patterns to create positive change.

Official Disclaimer provided by the IBH: Hypnotherapy is not a substitute for medical treatment or psychotherapy. Nell Weatherwax does not practice medicine or psychotherapy and her services are not a replacement for counseling, psychotherapy, psychiatric or medical treatment. No service or product provided is intended to diagnose or treat any disease or illness, psychological or mental health condition.

What is Medical Support hypnotherapy?

Medical support hypnotherapy is used only as an adjunct to conventional medical treatment. Consultation with a licensed physician is required before medical support hypnotherapy services are provided.